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Alexander Gee

Our elders believed in respecting elders. Therefore, when they said something, they felt that we should listen and take heed. They also strongly believed that younger people should learn from their experience and benefit from their hard-earned wisdom and gorgeous gray hair.

For this reason, when we rejected the sage wisdom of the elders, and it blew up in our faces and created a huge mess—their response to us was often: “You don’t believe fat meat is greasy, do you?!”

In essence they were saying, “That’s what you get for not listening. You think you’re smarter than us just ‘cause you got yourself some education! You don’t believe anything you’re told until it jumps up to bite you, and then it’s too late!”

With the invention of internet and creation of google, it is sometimes hard for me to pass along wisdom from my generation to my daughter’s. I might have to dust off this saying and revive its use.

Older African American people were often extremely intuitive. One of the gifts they used to navigate such a coded and invisible, unjust systemic reality, was to listen to the inner voices of their souls. They tried to teach us what they had learned as a survival tactic, so they often said, “When you’re makin’ a big decision and don’t know what to do, or which way to go, listen to your first mind and go in that direction.”

The intent of our leaders was to help us avoid second guessing and unnecessary mistakes.

Today, too many folks in our community err by taking routes that seem easier, or popular. Our mere existence is proof that we are an original design, so why do we waste such precious time trying to follow the paths of others that weren’t necessarily meant or cleared for us?

Old folks used to admonish us to slow down, be still, quiet ourselves, and listen to that inner voice… that first mind, and do what it says. We’re likely make more informed and mature decisions if we do.

Are you facing a major decision? Do you need direction? Try some of the wisdom of our elders today. Slow down so that you can hear, and respond to, your first mind.

This past weekend, I spent time in my new role as a part time Adjunct Professor for Law and Partnerships 735 in the Edgewood College Doctoral Program. I had a lot of things to share about. Here’s a couple quotes. Check out my video for more!

“If the public squares function like private squares, then how do they really influence society? True community change for institutions begins with the individual’s understanding of where are they lacking, and where do they need stronger partnerships and relationships.”

“We’ve got to help individuals understand their needs for partnerships before they can lead a major institution into a partnership.”

Stay with me, please. I am not attempting to commit the civil rights equivalent of the unpardonable sin. I wish to make a point.

My love for MLK is undeniable.

I admired King on television as a child. I remember being sent home from kindergarten on Chicago’s westside the day he was assassinated. I watched the flames of looted buildings from our third floor apartment building windows as grief stricken (and some opportunistic) people torched Chicago’s busy streets.

Blacks asked…

“Who will lead our marches now?”

“Who could challenge local, state and federal leaders now?”

“Who’d fill the shoes of assuring our dignity and legacy as Black people now?”

Whites commented…

“He was so articulate!”

“He was the first Black we could follow”

“He could speak about voting rights for Black and still voice our ‘American’ concerns about the Viet Nam War!”

I function in a society where I live out my public life as a pastor, author, networker, healer, social-entrepreneur, activist, coach, organizer and teacher. I love those aspects of my work. However, I am also a husband, a son, a dad, a thinker, a poet, a storyteller, a seer, an adventurist, a theologian, a muse and occasional mystic!

I need a place to break out of the box of being type cast and pigeon-holed. I need sacred space to address issues that press on my heart and mind…not just my skin and culture. I have owned the need to bring all of myself to the table, one which I get to set, arrange and invite others to. This is precisely why my communications team and I have created AlexGee.Com – a place of spiritual, cultural, emotional, intellectual, professional and relational contemplation and integration.

This one stop site is my place for authentically sharing myself and my ideas with the world, in hopes that people will become inspired to become their best and higher selves as they journey with me as I pursue the same.

I would love nothing more than to know that my blogs, #Geeisms (my pithy inspirational insights) and soon-to-be-released podcast may become tools with which people navigate this treacherous world with hope and a renewed sense of purpose and worth.